Grizedale Hall Lecture Summary February 2015

The February 2015 lecture was given by Dr. Suzanne Tiplady who told us about the history of the four Grizedale Halls. The earliest one was built in the 13th century by the Tomlinson family close to Satterthwaite. The Rawlinson family who had made money from mining iron and copper married into the Tomlinson family and inherited the Hall. Several generations later, when the Hall’s owner lived in London, the building was used as the Poor House.

In the 18th century new owners demolished and rebuilt it as a farmhouse. Henry Ainslie, who had made his money from iron ore smelting, acquired it by marrying Agnes Ford. In 1853, when their son inherited, he built the third new mansion, which resembled his former home in India, calling it Ford Lodge, on another part of the estate. The old Hall was renamed Home Farm and this building still stands today. Ford Lodge became Grizedale Hall and it was sold in 1902 to Harold Brocklebank, a Liverpool shipping magnet, when Ainslie’s

Iron Company failed. Brocklebank demolished the Hall and built a lavish new hall with no regard to cost (pictured here in 1907).

It was later sold it to the Forestry Commission and let to Holiday Fellowship in 1938 for holiday accommodation. When war broke out in 1939 the Hall was requisitioned, becoming a Prisoner of War camp for German Officers. Abandoned after the war it was demolished in 1958 and now all that remains are the Terrace Balustrade and some outbuildings.